PenPal World Reviews

The site would still be okay, but I don't think it's okay that there is no possibility to contact the site operators. The search function is also inadequate: it should be possible to search profile texts for keywords. That would be particularly helpful if people are interested in my culture or language, perhaps also share my interests,... This way you can only filter by age, gender and country. It is not completely free of charge, as some other reviews claim, at least not so that you can use every function for free without limit. The messages are limited to 3 per day, otherwise there are other minor restrictions in the free version.

The range of users is not huge but still okay. (depending on the country) and the website is a bit cumbersome and confusing to use. Some functions are rather hidden or built in somewhere where you wouldn't expect them.

Date of experience: May 21, 2024

I think its a good site to meet actual penpals. Its all in how you use it.
No site can protect you from catfish and scammers.
Its your job to.
Use common sense.
Be clear and specific in your profile.
PPW is a penpal not a dating site, block anyone who gets that confused.
Bock any msg, comment, request etc made by anyone without a name, photo, profile.
Give out no personal info.
Block counties with high scammer numbers (only paid members can)
Personally I see no need to pay for PPW, 3 msg a day are more than enough for me.
Never ever send money, to anyone, in any form, who you meet online.
Report any and everything suspicious to PPW.
Talk initially on PPW before switching to email. Set up an email address other than your primary one for these type of sites.
Personally I suspend my PPW acct when not actively seeking a new penpal. Reinstate it if I am.
If you use common sense and are self protective I believe you can find interesting international penpals on PPW.
I have.

Date of experience: April 23, 2023

So the website seems a little basic, sure. But I can't expect much from a site that offers a free service. My biggest complaint was lack of information. Nowhere that I found could you contact anyone who runs the site. There's mention of getting a Hotlist once you go VIP, but nowhere does it mention what that is. Benefit of the doubt its an oversight, but it feels sketchy so I deleted my account minutes after signing up.

Date of experience: February 04, 2024

I have used this site for several years. It is slow but acceptable. It's a great way to meet people. However, over the two weeks, I have not been able to access the site. It tells me that I am not a member. After paying their lifetime member fee, yes, I certainly am a member. I complained, and no action has been taken.

Date of experience: January 16, 2023

I actually made friends going on this website so that's why I give this website more than one star. but other than that, the website is poorly designed, there are message credits where basically you can't send more than three message per day, you always get logged out for no reason, everything is so bad.

Date of experience: August 29, 2021

The site owner and managers don’t do anything about any abuse or inappropriate messages or harassment from other members. In their own rules, it says you can’t use the site to look for hook-ups or ‘romance’ but many male members constantly do this.

When you say you don’t want any messages from men looking for women, and some weirdo harassed you repeatedly for it, the site OWNER won’t do anything. Three reports filed, and no action, no warning sent. ‘We will soon have the capability to temporarily block members’ but nothing done for months.

Upon complaint, they’re happy to refund you membership fees, which is the only reason they get 2 stars and not 1. They’d rather genuine members leave so they hang on to the weirdo who’s being paying them membership since 2014. There’s something wrong with a guy who needs to be on a PenPal meet site for a decade if you ask me.

Date of experience: February 08, 2022

I used this website between July 2018 and November 2023, so I had a wide share of experiences. I did, however, notice the fall of this once great website, starting from 2020 or so. I used it for years (would log in almost every day) and got in touch with no more than 30 people, kept touch with only one long-term (we're still excellent friends). However, scammers are roaming freely and there's something fishy going on there. There's supposed to be millions of users, yet I always would see (at best) a hundred regular users fitting my very wide parameters (age between 18 and 40, both genders), and interestingly, over the years, you often see the same and, even more fascinating, they won't reply if you try to contact them. The few normal apples I found and got in touch with (when I was lucky) tended to be either disinterested, or even arrogant. The last one, in November 2024, was a huge disappointment, and she almost scammed me. Right before her was a Swedish psycho who openly insulted me through PMs for literally no reason whatsoever. Out of 5 years on this website, I made only 6 friends, and I only have one left, like what? As a comparison, I used to go on an international penpal Discord server, and I'd get messages (from decent people) up to 7 times per day! I grew tired of wasting my time on PelPalWorld and am truly disappointed, as this website had such a potential. By the way, let's not get started about moderation's fishy behaviour, which thanksfully didn't affect me but I did see it happen on (how strange) the rare decent users. Good bye!

Date of experience: November 16, 2023

I went direct to website and followed the instructions on how to join, paid through paypal with email in instructions and didn’t hear anything for two weeks. I contacted them and was told to make sure it was a legit rep I worked with because there are multiple scammers using their company name and stealing money from people (wish this warning was on the website) turns out by following their instructions I paid “headquarters” directly and though I filled out an application was told they’re not connected and I needed to fill out the “headquarters” application. I got a PDF list of names which was odd to me I was under the impression it was being mailed but was still excited and now am again disappointed to read they only send people in your same age group? Why? I didnt see that anywhere on the website and probably wouldn’t have done it if I did. Where’s the fun in that? We can all connect and learn from one another especially being able to share things with someone from another generation. Dumb rule.

Date of experience: January 22, 2021

I have been using this site for 6 months and i think it is very slow to sent message back and forth. I prefer Multifriendschat, we can chat instantly on there .

Date of experience: August 15, 2023

I had my nephew sign up with my help, which we properly made a profile including picture, too. today when he tried to log-in only to find out that he's been banned from the site for no good reason, when he was able to login we notice that men/women are making comments to minors, but minors are not allowed to comment to adults, and also notice that a lot are banned, eventually all users will be ban from this site. I do NOT recommend this site
EDIT/04/14/24: The owner's name is Jakob Herrmmann, jakob at pen pal world dot com

Date of experience: April 09, 2024

Awful! My innocent Mother of 82 went online hoping to practice her writing skills and exchange email letters with someone! It’s like walking into a dirty bar on the wrong side of town! She was met with a few dodges… chose one and was writing daily via Google chat and almost scammed by a ‘united nations peace keeper’ who actually had excellent English (not the typical with bad grammar) … luckily I was keeping an eye on the messaging as she had logged in on my tablet and I saw the suspicious messages coming in! Absolutely avoid. Danger especially to the vulnerable.

Date of experience: September 02, 2022

Spend your life wisely, especially if like me, you are no longer that young. I thought I could find some friends so that I could exchange ideas about hobbies and country food and traditions, but only horrible scammers, perverts and also a few racist people got in touch. I would not spend 1p for this site, nor similar ones even if they are free. Real friendship is so hard to find as it is, these fake profiles offer none. Stay well away from these scammers. Oh, I forgot, in case that "lovely" german lady is going to read this: look at yourself in the mirror before pointing the finger at anyone else, you racist scammer!

Date of experience: March 03, 2023

I'm really disappointed with the lack of "scam-control" on this website. I' ve been on different penpal websites but this one takes the cake. The majority of the people I contacted were fake profiles who tried to scam me. It seems they don't care at all about it. I was tired of receiving messages from "girls" who contact you the same day they create their profiles or African guys who ask for your money.
My experiences on similar websites like Global Penfriends or Interpals were far more positive than Penpal World.
Shame Penpal World, shame!

Date of experience: February 03, 2020

I got banned for no reason at all, not even 24 hours after i created my profile. I thought i was doing good by putting all my infos, description, photo, and contacting my 3 first "pals". Then i could not connect anymore the next day because my account was under "review", and 24h later blocked. There is ZERO support so you cannot reach out to anybody, you can't cancel your account because you can't connect to it, you can't have a reason why you've been banned and defend yourself to prove you're not a scammer or whatever. This is pure crap, don't recommend.

Date of experience: March 29, 2021

Quite possibly the worst website I've ever used. Full of lifelong antisocials, weirdos, perverts and scammers. I'm still not sure what many of the people using this website are actually looking for. I used to see the same people online constantly. I could go back in a few hours, days, weeks and they would still be there. It was as if the website itself had become their new 'hobby'. I think I only ever came across one person who was genuinely interested in sharing and they immediately deleted their account which was telling. The final straw for me was when someone whom I'd sent a genuinely polite message to replied using all of their daily credits to tell me why they didn't want to talk to me! What a joke of a website and a complete waste of time and money.

Date of experience: April 01, 2023

This Site is full of Scammers! Profiles which claim to be one thing when in reality they are something else entirely. Even the Country they claim to be from is often false but worst of all is that the site admin is uncontactable, so no-one can complain about anything,

Date of experience: August 04, 2020

I can only write a few letters a day. It's not friendly to me. I don't like it here

Date of experience: February 23, 2022

It appears others have had a similar experience with this "site ." Like most people who join PPW, I really wanted to find pen-pals and learn about other countries, customs, foods, language etc. To say this experience (7 months) has been a waste of time, is the understatement of the century! I never found a single friend on this site, and was contacted non stop by scammers. 95% of the profile photos are fake, and nothing more than syndicated pics from the web. As a guy, I would get contacted by desperate gays, and young woman from Eastern Europe, thinking they could scam me. No one legitimate wants to learn from you or be friends. This site is basically full of creeps, desperate sex addicts, scammers and losers, who view PPW as "International Tinder!" After 7 months, I have yet to find a single friend from any country! My advice is stay away, and find another recourse, if you really want pen-pals. This site is a joke!

Date of experience: October 03, 2022

Unless you pay money to do the VIP upgrade, you can't do anything. The interface looks like something from 2003. I would rather be castrated by a butter knife with no anaesthetic than visit this website again.

Date of experience: December 12, 2019

I have no idea when I created an account on this site, I don't even get a glimpse of recollection when I look at the home page (which I would expect to, given its full of gross creepy men), but I got an alert saying my password has been compromised. I managed to work out the details and log in to delete my account only to find out it had already been deleted but they are keeping my personal data on file to allow it to be reactivated. That is not a deleted account. I've tried finding a way to contact support to have them remove my data entirely but there isn't anywhere I can find.

Date of experience: November 17, 2021